Christians United for Israel summit kicks off as Iran deal hangs in the balance
By Jacob Kamaras/JNS.org
Having spent a decade growing into America’s largest pro-Israel organization, with 2.2 million members, the journey of Christians United for Israel (CUFI) arrived at a historic crossroads on Monday morning.
While a nuclear deal between Iran and world powers was expected to be announced at any minute, CUFI kicked off its 10th Washington Summit and prepared to deploy thousands of Christian Zionists the next day to lobby members of the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives to support Israel against the Iranian nuclear threat.
“The mantra of this 10th CUFI anniversary is to compel the members of the U.S. Congress, when you have the chance to vote on this deal, vote it down. Stop the bomb. Do not let it happen,” Pastor John Hagee, CUFI’s founder and national chairman, told an enthusiastic crowd.
“Isn’t it remarkable that God brings us to DC at just the appointed time to make the difference?” said Diana Hagee, the pastor’s wife. “All we have to do is be obedient and stand where God stands.”
CUFI Executive Director David Brog said, “We knew this day would come. We knew this fight would come.” The best-case scenario of a nuclear deal with Iran, said Brog, is the release of billions of dollars into Iranian bank accounts to fund Hamas, Hezbollah, and other terrorism around the world.
“We may well be on the cusp of the worst diplomatic error ever of our generation,” he said. “And when errors of this scale are made, people pay, and pay with blood.”
“If our hypocritical leaders in Washington had a spine,” Hagee said, before re-emphasizing the word “if,” then they would craft a letter to Iran stating that an attack on Israel would be an attack on the U.S.
“Together, let us do everything in our power to once again bring some wisdom to this town, to bring some love to this town,” Brog said, adding, “Let us go boldly and proudly to take this stand for peace, for Israel and America.”
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As nuclear deal nears, Ya’alon says Israel ‘ready to defend ourselves, by ourselves’
(JNS.org) Hours before a nuclear between Iran and world powers was expected to be finalized Monday, Israeli Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon told the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee that “at the bottom line, we are headed toward a bad deal, after which we will continue to be ready to defend ourselves, by ourselves.”
“Even if there are last-minute improvements, it will still be a bad deal that will allow Iran to become a nuclear threshold state, with everything that entails,” Ya’alon said, Israel Hayom reported.
“The agreement in effect launders everything that Iran has done… Neighboring countries are now talking about their own need to arm themselves, which could spark a nuclear arms race in the region,” he continued. “Countries like Saudi Arabia, Egypt, and Turkey are talking about it. Not to mention the fact that the agreement doesn’t require [Iran] to decommission even a single nuclear facility or destroy even a single centrifuge.”
Ya’alon outlined the issues that he said “should not only alarm us (Israelis), but anyone who seeks stability in the Middle East and in the world: the fact that the Iranian missile project was not discussed or that the Iranian terrorist activity—activity directed against us like their support for Hezbollah—was not discussed; the funding of Hamas and Islamic Jihad in Gaza; the dissemination of rocket manufacturing instructions, or the attempt to launch attacks on us from the Golan Heights, as we saw at the beginning of the year.”
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Israeli bumblebees fly ‘first-class’ to Japan to pollinate produce
(JNS.org) Israeli bumblebees are being sent to Japan to help make up for a lack of bees caused by the increased use of pesticides in that country’s rice fields.
The Israeli bees are being sent to Japan inside spacious hives, each of which contains an impregnated queen bee and 50 worker bees that supply her needs. The Bio Bee firm, based at Kibbutz Sde Eliyahu, which raises and ships the bees, takes care to ensure the queen and her minions have as comfortable a flight as possible with “first-class” conditions and a short layover in Moscow.
When they arrive in Japan, the bees are sent to greenhouses in farms through the country, where they work busily to pollinate the produce, a process vital to ensure a good harvest.
Bio Bee’s mass-produced earth bumblebees (Bombus terrestris) are created for pollination purposes only. They have been bred to fulfill their mission even when the temperature drops, as well as in rainy, cloudy weather, when bees do not naturally work and prefer to huddle up in their warm hives. As the bees suck up nectar from a flower, they shake it, which helps disseminate the pollen.
The pollinating bees have for years been helping Israeli farmers, who are also affected by the global decline in the honeybee population. The advantage of these particular bees is that they tend to stay inside the closed greenhouse, rather than flying out to cultivate other people’s fields.
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IDF lone soldier killed in Gaza honored with Torah dedication
(JNS.org) A year after his death in Gaza during Operation Protective Edge, IDF lone soldier Max Steinberg was honored with a Torah scroll dedication ceremony on Sunday at the Aish World Center in Jerusalem.
The ceremony was attended by Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi of Israel David Lau, Steinberg’s friends from the IDF’s elite Golani Brigade, and his parents, Stuart and Evie, who arrived after meeting with Israeli President Reuven Rivlin.
Steinberg’s friends wrote the final letters into the Torah scroll dedicated in his name.
“It is very emotional for me to see the soldiers here,” Evie Steinberg said. “Losing a child is so difficult, but we draw so much strength from the people when we come to Israel and it helps a lot.”
Steinberg, a 24-year-old Los Angeles native, was one of 13 Israeli soldiers killed in the Shejaiya neighborhood of Gaza City on July 20, 2014.
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Netanyahu visits family of Hamas hostage Avera Mengistu
(JNS.org) Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu visited the family of Avera Mengistu in Ashkelon on Friday, a day after it was revealed that Mengistu, a 28-year-old Israeli of Ethiopian descent, is being held hostage by the Hamas terrorist group in Gaza since crossing the border fence last September.
After meeting with the family for more than an hour, Netanyahu said, “We are doing everything in our ability to return Avera to Israel, just as we are in contact with the family of the other Israeli citizen (a Bedouin whose identity is still under a gag order) in order to bring him back to Israel as well. We face a very cynical and cruel enemy that denies the basic humanitarian obligation to send innocent citizens back to their country. We will not slacken, and we will do everything necessary in order to bring these citizens back home.”
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French jihadist leader, 13 others jailed for plotting attacks on Jewish targets
(JNS.org) A French jihadist leader, along with 13 others, were sentenced to prison on Friday for plotting attacks on Jewish targets inside of France and advocating terrorism.
A Paris court sentenced Mohamed Achamlane, the self-proclaimed “emir” of the outlawed Forsane Alizza (Knights of Pride) Islamist terror group, to nine years in jail for plotting attacks on targets such as kosher supermarkets and other Jewish-owned shops in Paris, according to files found on a computer by police. Thirteen accomplices of Achamlane were sentenced to up to six years in jail, Le Figaro reported.
The convictions come as the French government is seeking to crack down on homegrown Islamic extremism following January’s terror attacks on the satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo and the Hyper Cacher kosher supermarket.
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Amid nuclear talks, Iran stages massive anti-Israel and anti-U.S. rallies
(JNS.org) Amid the ongoing stalemate in nuclear talks, millions of Iranians reportedly turned out in rallies across their country, calling for “death to Israel” and “down with America,” as they burned flags and effigies of President Barack Obama and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
The demonstrations are part of Iran’s annual “Al-Quds Day” rallies, which call for the “liberation” of Jerusalem.
“There are two sides in oppression: oppressor & the oppressed. We back the oppressed and are against oppressors,” current Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said on Twitter, referring to both America and Israel.
Khamenei military aid Major General Yahya Rahim Safavi said “armed struggle” is the only way to free Jerusalem.
“Muslims’ unity and continuation of armed jihad (struggle) and the Islamic resistance of the Palestinian nation constitute the only strategy for saving and liberating the Holy Quds,” Safavi said, the semi-official Fars News Agency reported.
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Pope Francis demands end to ‘genocide’ of Mideast Christians
(JNS.org) Pope Francis demanded an end to the “genocide” of Middle East Christians during his visit to Bolivia on Thursday.
“Today we are dismayed to see how in the Middle East and elsewhere in the world many of our brothers and sisters are persecuted, tortured and killed for their faith in Jesus,” Pope Francis said.
“In this third world war, waged piecemeal, which we are now experiencing, a form of genocide is taking place, and it must end,” he added.
Francis has spoken frequently on the issue of protecting the Middle East’s dwindling Christian population from attacks by Muslim terror groups like Islamic State in Syria and Iraq.
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